Comcast SportsNet expands partnership with Ravens

There’s been some chatter coming from Baltimore in recent months about the Ravens entering the D.C. market — Coach John Harbaugh once said “the kids, the high school kids, the college kids, the 20-somethings in that area are kind of turning our way.” He also said “We’ll take over Washington D.C.” Big words.

Well, they might be starting. Comcast SportsNet announced on Tuesday an expanded deal with the Ravens that will, for the first time, include preseason broadcasts, occasional regular-season pre-game shows and, most interestingly 16 regular season-postgame shows.

“Ravens Postgame Live, a comprehensive 90-minute postgame show, will air following all regular season and playoff games during the 2011 season,” the release said.

Now, what makes this particularly juicy is that six times this year — in weeks 2, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17 — the Redskins and Ravens are scheduled to play at the same time.

This means their postgame shows would be on at the same time. And this means that, without access to its plus channel, Comcast SportsNet will split its feed between the Washington and Baltimore TV markets, something it has done for promotional purposes but not content purposes in the past.

Now, there are some intricacies in here, but generally, I believe this means that people in Howard and Anne Arundel Counties will get the Ravens postgame show on CSN for those six weeks. Which is fascinating.

“We enjoyed a very successful season with the Ravens last year, so we are excited to extend and elevate our partnership to include high-quality game-day coverage,” said Comcast SportsNet Senior Vice President and General Manager Rebecca Schulte said in the release. “This expanded coverage, in addition to the full news and entertainment programming we provide all season, makes Comcast SportsNet the number-one destination for Ravens fans.”

More details: Because of conflicts with the Redskins, CSN will only show one Ravens preseason game live: this Thursday’s debut. The other two preseason games the network broadcasts will be shown on delay.

The network will return four weekday Ravens shows, adding a fifth — Ravens One on One — on Tuesdays.

Ravens Postgame Live, the 90-minute postgame show, will air after all regular season games. “Ravens Kickoff” will be 60 minutes long and will air before selected games.

Redskins Kickoff and Redskins Postgame Live are both 90 minute shows which air before and after every regular-season Skins game. There will be 60-minute Redskins kickoff and postgame shows during the preseason, when CSN will be the exclusive HD home for Redskins games.